The Empyrean Crux - Torch
by JosephNorris
Summary: While the scourge from the Androffian ship Divinity struggles to rise around her, a blind pathfinder finds herself caught up in other events in Numeria that have just as great a danger. The first part in a much larger story that takes place during the Iron Gods Adventure path. Working on perfecting my writing skills so reviews would be very much appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

The dark sky of night gradually turned into dim grey, and the illumination of stars got languidly lusterless — the eastern sky filled with blended tones of rosy pinks and sandy yellows. Bright streaks of red, pink, and orange slowly overcame the dark blue and purple of the twilight sky. The sky resembled a prism; all the colors blended into each other. The sun itself peeked out of the horizon, and its brilliant rays shined brightly and warmed the air.

Arianna sat on a large stone next to a dwindling fire. The myriad of verdant hues and breathtaking display of radiant color were lost to her. Blind from birth, the day was all about the sounds, the tastes, and the rising air temperature. She felt the morning breeze kiss her warmly.

Next to her, a tiny steel creature a little over a foot long with one oversized eye, a spherical body, and several spider-like legs of grinding metal reached out and prodded one log sending sparks sputtering in the air. It chirped with a sound not found in nature.

"Thank you, Sylvester," she said with a certain sadness in her voice.

The mechanical thing chirped again, but this had a different tone to it, deeper and a fraction longer.

A kellid male, his hair white on both sides and retreating up his forehead, woke with a cough that continued until it left him gulping the air. "Don't sound so glum," Bevis said after the fit ceased. "We'll make Torch by the end of the day. Although, we should be able to see the Flame from here."

"Uh-huh," Arianna said with a sigh.

"Sorry, no offense. I mean...umm...I should be able to see the Flame from here."

"None taken," Arianna mumbled.

"That flame has been visible for miles for over a century," the man said. His words echoed with confusion. "Yeah, yeah, it diminished a bit in 4604, but still we...I mean, I should still see something, even from this distance.

Arianna just shrugged.

"What's wrong, Poppet?"

"Nothing."

Sylvester let out a few chirps with a notable angry tone to them.

"Oh...I had no idea it was your birthday. You said nothing."

"I'm eighteen today," Arianna mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Poppet, Really I am. Look at the bright side, we're free of..." his words were cut off with a coughing fit. It was a gurgling hack. Arianna didn't need to see to know he had fluid in his lungs. "When we get there, I'll get you something."

Arianna's dark world faded into her.

_Bevis was standing outside a single-story wooden building. Beyond the structure's massive glass window were wooden toys painted in vibrant colors._

_"Happy birthday, Poppet," Bevis said and handed her a small rectangle box wrapped in a red and yellow handkerchief. "I know it's not much."_

_Arianna removed the handkerchief to reveal..._

"...a bone domino set with carved pips," she said with a squeal of delight as the world jolted back to black.

"That is so annoying," Bevis mumbled."

"I heard that," Arianna said and stretched out her hand, searching around her.

With two of his spider-like mechanical legs, Sylvester lifted a three-foot-long hexagon cane and tapped it against Arianna's leg. The blind girl grasped the staff. "Thank you, Sylvester. "

Bevis coughed a few times. "Why do you call it that. It's just a tool."

"No, he's your familiar," she tapped the ground with the cane for guidance. "You may have built him from leftover bits the League didn't think useful, but he's just as intelligent as any other familiar."

"No, he's a tool," Bevis argued. "I made him..."

Arianna interrupted with a girlish giggle. "You said, HE'S a tool and made "HIM."

Bevis snorted, and she heard the sounds of him packing up the meager supplies they grabbed before fleeing Redfin Outpost. Little more than a couple of worn wool blankets and some trail rations "Why Sylvester," Bevis asked and took her arm.

"What do you expect to call him? Something impersonal like...X2?"

Bevis laughed, but it turned into a sickening gurgle. Arianna sniffed the air and picked up the faint, but the distinct sickly sweet smell of blood mixed with the foul odor of infection. "It's getting worse," she said.

"Yes, but I'll live to see Torch," Bevis said and tugged for her to walk with him. "Or your glimpse into tomorrow would be different."

"That is the first time in a long while I've seen that far," she said...

_Her dark world melted away to a countryside stretched before her like a large quilt of gold, brown, and green squares held together by the thick green stitching of hedgerows. It rose and fell like giant waves on a gentle ocean. She stood in a glorious expanse of meadow flowers. Grass rustling gently in the breeze with an oak tree providing sun-flecked shade. There was a narrow brook flowing nearby through it choked with weeds. Tall water-mint with pale lilac flowers, like dozens of tiny bells, growing at the edges. She saw herself take a step forward and stumble over a boulder embedded in the yellow grass._

... and stepped over a boulder, changing the vision of the future she'd just seen.

Bevis' cough returned with a vengeance, and they stopped while he doubled over, spitting out something when it concluded. Arianna sucked in her lower lip and worried about the mutability of the future.

The tall grasses rustling against her dress faded and became the clipped sound of her League boots on cobblestone. The stench of human waste replaced fragrance of fields of wheat and barley.

"Something is wrong," Bevis said.

"What makes you say that," Arianna said and gripped the fighting stick she used for guidance. A gift from Master Marcos Faraellusb after her confirmation as a Pathfinder Field Agent. It was the only thing remaining from her first mission. The Technic League confiscated everything else, including her Wayfinder. She liked the Master of Swords and hoped to someday get word to him she survived the treachery of Lady Riverbane, the second in command of the hired barge.

"I know it's been a long time since I was last here, but I don't recall garbage piling up in the streets, the over-crowded bars, and the unusual amount of idle citizens."

"What do you think it is?"

"Not sure, but first, I need to fulfill a promise."

Bevis pulled Arianna along through the streets. "You need to wait here," he said and patted her arm. "I'll be right back."

The event she'd see that morning unfolded just as she'd seen leaving her standing hold a new domino set. "Thank you," she said.

"Happy birthday, Poppet. Now, let's head back over to the Gatehouse Tavern and ask what the hell is going. You'll love the owner; he's a retired Pathfinder."

"A real Pathfinder?"

"Well, not anymore. A hundred years ago, give or take a decade, Pathfinder Talin Frostbeard settled down in the town of Torch, although some say he slithered into town fleeing some horrible event in his past. Displaying a surprising amount of wealth, he built the Gate House Tavern with his famous Thunderbrew, and settled into a simple life."

Holding her arm, Bevis led her through a swinging half doors. The hinges squeak as though they are a warning, but their plea is silenced by a wall of noise. Conversations swirl in a dirty cloud of smoke, the stagnant stench of inner sea tobacco hides within the collaboration of mephitic odors. A sharp smell of drink wafts over Arianna like black plumes billowing from the windows of a burning house. There's even a hint of sick tainting the fragrance of the room.

"Pebbles to boulders, look who it is. Bevis Baine," A husky female voice said. "You've gotten old."

"How's your grandfather. He wouldn't like you tossing out dwarven curses."

"Dead...three years back. He left the place to me."

"I'm sorry. Oh, Helga. This is Arianna."

A thick hand grasped hers. Too big for a human.

"Chelish nobility, huh. You're a long way from home, hun."

"How did you..."

"Helga has been working here since I was a boy. She knows more about people than any other person besides her grandfather."

"Hey!" a patron shouted over the din, "'ow 'bout 'rink, 'iskey."

Arianna's dark world faded, showing the tavern in detail.

_The once crisp golden wallpaper was torn in places. On the walls were gilded mirrors, but the frames were dusty, and the light that shone off them showed years of specks of dirt and food that was never polished off. The floor at first glance appeared to be mud, but it was made of large terracotta flagstones covered in years of grime._

_Still holding her hand was a female dwarf with a voluptuous figure and straw blonde hair worn in two long braids._

_A man with greasy black hair stood and grabbed a small glass. His eyes had a strange sunken look and were threaded with scarlet so densely that they appeared pink. His cheeks glowed under broken veins; his actions were slow, clumsy. He hurled the glass at Helga, but his aim was off. Arianna felt it connect on the back of her head..._

...as she leaned slightly to one side. The glass landed on the flagstone floor and shattered.

"So, what happened here. Everything looks dead," Bevis asked.

"Oh, boy, are YOU in for a surprise! Come on! Ma, watch the front."

Bevis helped Arianna up.

"What's her deal," Arianna heard Helga whisper. "She blind or something?"

"Something," Arianna answered and decided for a more appropriate time to explain.

With Bevis holding Arianna's arm, Helga led them through Torch, then up the Black Hill.

"You don't have to do this," Arianna said, tapped his hand. "I can manage on my own."

"Humor me, Poppet."

"You got a thick Varisian accent," Helga said. "Mother, I take it. Concubine of your father's court?"

"You must forgive Helga, like many dwarves she can be..." Bevis cut himself off. "There's no smiths and no laborers. No violet flame. Without that flame, how can the town every hope to pay the tribute to the League."

Sniffing the air, Arianna picked up the scent of wildflowers, coal-tar, vinegar, citrus, and vanilla.

"What the hell, right?" Helga exclaimed. "When it went out, people were freaking out — screaming and crying! Haha! They're still freaking out! It's been… like… four days or something."

"The League is going to come looking into why."

"Which means they will find us," Arianna said. "We need to go."

"Not till I find my brother. Helga, where is Khonnir?"

"That is a long story," Helga said. As they descended the hill, the dwarf explained caves were discovered underneath Torch, where more than a few groups of volunteers had gone missing plumbing their depths. Khonnir entered the tunnels and returned with a disabled automaton. But when Khonnir returned to these strange caves to learn more, he vanished. The town council has grown desperate for answers.

"To the town council," Bevis said, followed by a coughing fit.

"You okay, old man?" Helga asked.

"Who...are...you...calling...old," Bevis gulped.

"Will they be meeting this late," Arianna asked.

"If you're blind, how can you tell..." Before Helga could finish, Bevis unleashed a coughing fit. "What's wrong with him," Helga asked.

"I don't know...he picked it up a few months ago. I can't seem to heal it."

Beavis gurgled and spat up something.

"That isn't good... that's bad. It's dark, not blood dark, but black. We need to get him to a priest. Now."

Gripping her fighting cane tightly, she draped Bevis' right arm over her shoulder and slid her left around his waist. "Now I lead you," she ordered in a firm tone. With eyes closed, she concentrated on not "now" just as Master Aram Zey had taught her a little over a year ago.

_The town materialized into view. Down the road to the left, Arianna saw herself holding Beavis up while the blonde dwarfed marched ahead. They passed three buildings. Above the doorway of the forth was a large bronze feminine mask with a forehead rune - the symbol of Brigh._

"Let's go," Arianna grunted and bore the weight of a gasping Bevis as the world grew dark.


	2. Chapter 2

"You can't be blind," Helga hissed as the three of them headed down the cobblestone street.

Arianna grunted as Bevis continued to hack for air. "I can see what will be but not what is."

"That makes about as much sense as 'run slowly' or 'worthless gold'"

An evening breeze from the north-east rustled Arianna's hair and carried with it the thick aroma of wild orchids and chrysanthemums that ringed the town of Torch. Helga thumped up several wooden stairs and pounded on something solid. "Joram!" Helga shouted. "Open up, old man!"

Guided by her vision of what was to be and tapping her white cane for confirmation of her surroundings, Arianna struggled up several steps supporting Bevis.

Arianna heard a door open. "Yes, my child?" The voice, Joram she assumed, was unexpected. It was low, with an agreeable trace of huskiness and with a hint of more power than the older man she expected.

Bevis coughed loudly several times. They were coming thick and fast now, and he struggled to get enough air. With her ear pressed against his ribs, she could hear the sound of fluid with each burst.

"Oh, I see," Joram said, and Arianna felt another body slide up under Bevis' other side, and the weight on her lessened. "I've got him, child. You can let go now."

Bevis pulled away, and Arianna tapped her cane around the entrance doorway.

"Hey, watch it," Helga snapped as Arianna's cane tapped against the dwarf.

"Be nice, Helga. Can't you see she's blind," Joram said.

Helga responded with a snort.

"I'm fine," Arianna said and followed the voice as it moved. "Can you help him?"

"Varisian?" Joram whispered in a questioning tone. "Set your things down here and lie down."

There was a muffled clang that Arianna assumed was the make-shift rucksack carrying Sylvester and their supplies hitting the stone floor. A loud creak of wood followed by Bevis gasping with a string of harsh coughs.

"He's got water in the lungs," Joram said. "It's a common malady of the elderly...Miss?"

"Naveroni, Arianna Rosetta Gabriela la Rosa da Naveroni," Arianna said. "It started a few months ago,"

"That's quite a name," Helga said.

"Drink this...Bevis, isn't it? Khonnir's brother?" Joram ordered. "It will help suspend the cough and allow you to sleep."

"Thank you," Bevis said. His voice sounded cracked and strained. "Where is Khonnir? I need to find him."

"You need to rest first," Joram said.

Arianna sniffed the air. There is something unsettling about the odors of the room. It carried the distinct smell of a League workshop: Linseed-oil and coal-tar based lubricants, burnt metal, vanilla laden poultices for treating charred flesh, citrus-based cleaners. The stench of burnt Suliao overpowered everything. Suliao was a League created material that could be shaped when soft and warm but becomes hard when it cools. She'd only seen to coat copper wires inside League devices, but Bevis said they used it for many things.

"He's going to live, Joram, right?" Helga said.

Arianna felt around with her cane and found a stool next to a simple cot.

"With plenty of bed rest, lots of fluids, he should make a complete recovery," Joram answered.

Arianna let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. The weight of worry dissipated only to be replaced with the strain of fatigue. She struggled to suppress a yawn.

"You look tired, my child. There is nothing more you can do here. You need rest too."

"Is there someplace I can stay?"

"Helga can take you to the Evercandle, our small but humble inn."

"I mean here, with him."

"He'll be fine," Joram said. "Go, get some rest."

"Joram is a real priest of Brigh. Spells and everything," Helga interjected.

Arianna sighed. She didn't want to leave Bevis here. Her hand fumbled toward the muffled clank until her fingers grasped burlap. She removed Sylvester then kicked their sack under the cot. "Here you go, old man."

"Who are you calling old?" Bevis wheezed.

"What is that!" Helga shrieked. The sound of fear and terror clear. "Are you from the League?"

Arianna rested Bevis's mechanical creation on his chest. "No, we escaped and made our way here."

"Fascinating device," Joram said. "Clockwork spy of some type?"

"Bevis built it," Arianna said. "Sylvester, you stay here with Bevis and help Mister Joram if he asks."

"No," Bevis croaked. "You need him..." his words cut off with a slight series of coughs that gurgled up fluid.

Sylvester let out several chirps.

"No, go with her," Bevis said, followed by several chirps. "Because I said so, that's why."

Another round of chirps.

"I don't care what she said. You do what I..."

"...Shush," Arianna cut in with a firm voice. "You need to rest. Sylvester will tend to your needs. AND I will find your brother. End of Story. "

"Miss Naveroni," Joram said whispered. "You realize you're..."

"...blind? Yes, but I'm also a trained Pathfinder. I passed my confirmation and survived my first mission. I am not helpless."

The only sound in the room was Bevis' slight wheezing.

"I sense Her touch upon you," Joram said, breaking the silence. "I can see it in the strange shadow upon your eyes."

Sylvester chirped again.

"Oh. Yes. Of course," Bevis said and thrust a small leather sack into Arianna's hand. It jingled with coins. "You'll need this. It's our money. Spend it as you see fit."

"How much do we owe you?" Arianna asked and stood up.

"The donation box is to the right of the door as you leave, my child."

Arianna removed two Groats. The small gold coins used by the Technic League had a reeded edge making them easy to identify by touch. She closed the little bag with her teeth and placed it behind the bodice dagger of her corset and said, "How do I get to this Evercandle?"

"It's back the way we came," Helga said. "Just keep to your left and..."

Joram cleared his throat.

"Best if I lead the way. We got an unsavory element that slithers out at night. I pay up, you understand, but you being a stranger and all..."

"Thank you," she said in Varisian. "Thank you," she repeated in Taldan headed back the way she came, her cane tapping out a path back to the door. On her way out, her searching hands found a large lacquered box attached to the wall about waist high. The two Groats clinked as they rebounded off the wood. "To the Evercandle?"

"This way, Pathfinder," Helga said and moved up to rested her hand on Arinna's shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3

"I think Joram liked you, then again he likes everybody," Helga said, and Arianna couldn't tell if the dwarf was being insulting or just brutally honest.

"Thank you."

"The Evercandle is this way," Helga applied pressure on Arianna's shoulder, indicating she should drift to the left.

Out of habit, Arianna tapped her lacquered fighting stick back and forth on the ground in front of her. The Pathfinder Master of Swords, Marcos Faraellusb, selected a bright white for the color so everybody could see. "Who knows?" he said to her. "It might catch on for all blind people."

_A hazy scene replaced the darkness. Arianna stood in a large room, a brass chandelier hung from the dark wooden beam that ran down the center of the ceiling and looked like the bejeweled corpse of a giant spider. Uncoordinated colors of gems on the limbs lit with the illumination from dozens of candles. _

_In the hearth, white powdered ash from the burning logs was crowded in the crevices of auburn bricks. Thick wood pieces were crackling and popping as the bright flame slowly ate away at it and turned it to ashes as if a shadow had corrupted its vital essence. A dancing fire licked and spat at the curved ceiling of the hearth with its glowing, bright golden flame, and its red base shimmered across the wood like dawn upon a summer morning. _

_The banister to the second story arced like flowing water. Perfection in dark wood. It seemed to float over the wide spiral staircase with spectral ease and was supported with ornate wrought iron balustrades that appeared to grow from the stairs themselves and blossom upward_.

_"Welcome to the Evercandle." The voice had an old feel to it, yet with a jovial tone. Arianna turned to see who it belong to..._

...and the world return to being dark.

"Something wrong, Pathfinder?" Helga asked. "You're just standing there."

Such visions of things yet to be were not new to Arianna. She'd had them her whole life. "Tell me about the Evercandle, and the woman works there.

"That be Soceal Murgrave, but how did you..." Helga didn't finish. "She's an odd sort. Always dresses out if you take my meaning."

"I'm afraid I don't."

"Well, she runs the inn you see, and wears clothes a bit more like..."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Helga cleared her throat. "Like...you do...up top, I mean."

"Oh, she wears a corset. It's what most, if not all, women in Chelix wear. Is she from Chelix?" Arianna asked hopefull she might find someone from her nation so far east.

"No. She just likes the clothes. We grew up here, in Torch. In fact, we used to play where the Stanfords live now. Back then, it was an open field. Be about five...no six decades ago now. We lost touch when he married that awful man."

Arianna let the dwarf speak her mind, but her thoughts were on Bevis. She'd grown to like him. When the League first assigned her to work under him repairing their devices, she was terrified. Bevis treated her with nothing but kindness.

"He was a lazy drunkard," Helga said and snapped Arianna back to the present. "After their daughter died, he moved to pesh and wasted away to the grave."

"What happened to their daughter?" Arianna asked, becoming interested in the gossip.

"Sad story...Tegwyn, their daughter, craved for a life beyond Torch. She conjured a romantic vision of the Kellid tribes. She eventually slipped away in the night, never to be heard from again. Gavin blamed himself. Already an old man, he started sucking down whiskey to escape, and when that didn't work, he started doing pesh. They found him dead with a pipe still in his mouth."

"How horrible. So his widow runs the place alone?"

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Turn," and Helga indicated another left. "It's something nobody really talks about. We all know, of course."

"Is it something dangerous," Arianna asked, and her mind flashed to scenes of Paracountess Zarta Dralneen, head of the Chelaxian mission to the Pathfinder society, and her pet Quasits walking through the embassy grounds in Riddleport.

"No, just scandalous. You see, before she took off, there was a boy, Erimon Reverstoudt, who fell for Tegwyn. At the time, I thought it just a boy's crush, what with him being 14 and her being 19. But, as I said, she wanted a Kellid man, not a boy. About a year after Gavin died, the Erimon family farm burned down. Killed his parents and left him with scars on the better part of his right leg. With nowhere else to go, and alone herself, Soceal took the boy in. Not that anybody sees them do anything, but the rumor is that a fifteen-year-old male proved too much temptation, and she seduced the boy."

"How long ago was all this?"

"Little over three decades now."

"So all this time..."

"Yes."

"Oh my..."

"I know," Helga said and stopped. "Here we are. I...ummm...I've been gone a little too long, and you did say...

"Go, I'll be fine," Arianna said.

"Good luck, Arianna. Nice meeting you," Helga blurted out, followed by the sounds of her running.

Arianna stood there and took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of wildflowers and coal-tar that permeated everything in Torch. It had been a long time since she was alone, without somebody guiding her, over a year. At this moment, there was no mother, no Bevis, not even that annoying, cigar-chomping dwarf from her confirmation trials who thought her helpless.

Tapping her way up what felt like brick steps and then to a door, she pressed the lever down and pushed. The smell of freshly grounded, Osirian coffee rose and dissipated into the air. She drank it in slowly, and it made her instantly melancholy for home. Before he died, she and her father spent many hours at the Long Roads Coffeehouse, one of the many small restaurants, eateries, and coffee houses scattered across the Village district of Kintargo in Cheliax.

"Welcome to the Evercandle." The voice had an old feel to it, yet a jovial tone. Arianna turned to see who it belong to


End file.
